Former Labour cabinet minister Kiri Allan has come out swinging against the public service saying it is bloated, slow, and overpaid.In her new memoir, Go Hard or Go Home, she is scathing of the sector and doubled-down on her position on Friday, calling for an overhaul on Midday Report.Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche declined to comment.Allan said there were "exceptional people" throughout the public service and her comments weren't an attack on individuals, but on the system.She said in the private sector, the incentive to work hard was to "put food on the table" the next day, and maintained the problems she saw with the public sector were particularly acute in upper management."What I found with senior bureaucrats is that they're often more political than politicians. They know they're going to out-survive politicians."And they just sometimes need to bide their time, say 'Yes minister, absolutely minister.'"Allan said it was "problematic" for the country's political system, and different from some systems overseas.She said she also believed in "devolution" and thought taxpayer dollars were overly centralised and wanted to see more money and resources in the hands of communities."Because of the policies that our government's provide, there ends up being a lot of gatekeeping in the centre in terms of getting those resources out."Allan said she ran into this during her time as conservation minister, claiming getting millions of dollars to community groups under the Jobs for Nature programme was a "ridiculous process" that took a couple of years.She said in another instance, resolving who had cultural rights over whale bones took four years.The Department of Conservation declined to comment.Allan said she did not agree with the ACT Party's policy to slash the public sector, but said an overhaul was needed."I do think we need to have a good think about how tax dollars get put back into communities, having our communities steward those resources ... is something I'm a big advocate for."